The further and continuing adventures of the girl who sat in the back of your homeroom, reading and daydreaming.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Thanksgiving Dinner

Turducken: ++++! Maybe we lucked out but it was dee-lish.

Mushroom-Bacon gravy: +++, needs more bacon fat (had to pad with olive oil and some Crisco). Next time, I'll either start with more bacon or fry the mushrooms in something else. This uses FarmMom's good ol' pan gravy recipe.

My skin-on mashed potatoes: with Irish butter! ++++!

...The succotash worked out well and Shootin' Buddy brought a fine wine. Pie is next, with coffee.

Bonus: the wisdom of keeping powdered milk on the shelf is proven once again. Ran out of fresh making gravy and taters.

Behind The Scenes: there was a point about a half-hour before dinner when I had bird(s) in the oven, taters simmering and fungi sizzling and had the dining room table stood on end, sinking 3" deck screws through the glue blocks on the apron and into the tops of two of the legs. It was doweled & hide glued together sometime in the late 19th or very early 20th Cent. and then repaired by a hatchet, woodscrew and Elmer's-glue wielding barbarian in the the mid-20th and the glue bonds are all starting to surrender. Lucky me, you can about see the stove in my galley-type kitchen from the table. Luckier still, Tam found one of the batteries for my cordless drill/driver. They'd been AWOL for weeks.

4 comments:

Farm Moms How to Make Gravy instructions are some of, if not the best, that I've ever seen. I wish my tech manuals were as well written. Following her instructions this morning I used heavy cream and made the best turkey gravy I've ever had in my life.

"I saw to what extent the people among whom I lived could be trusted as good neighbors and friends; that their friendship was for summer weather only; that they did not greatly propose to do right; that they were a distinct race from me by their prejudices and superstitions."